Obama Caves to the Syria Hawks

The Wall Street Journalreports that Obama has opted for pointless half-measures in Syria:

President Barack Obama authorized his administration to provide arms to moderate rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, according to officials briefed on the decision.

This move will almost certainly prolong and intensify the conflict, which will mean that even more Syrians on both sides of the war will suffer and die. It’s a serious mistake, and one that will probably lead to even bigger ones in the future. Because it will prove to be ineffective in changing the course of the war, as opponents of this measure have said for years, it will serve as an invitation to further escalation in the coming months and years. The Syria hawks agitating for increased involvement have managed to pressure the administration into this because of Obama’s own unforced errors and because there has been practically no one to stop this from happening. Let this be a lesson that there is no policy measure so ill-conceived or unwise that the constant, repetitive demand for it in public won’t eventually succeed. Of course, because Obama has agreed to this measure years after it was first proposed, it will completely fail to satisfy most Syria hawks, who will quickly declare it to be inadequate. The same people that have been demanding that the U.S. arm the rebels will waste no time in calling for more aggressive measures. If this decision is any indication, they will eventually get what they want.

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55 Responses to Obama Caves to the Syria Hawks

WorkingClass – - Oligarchy? Tens of thousands of lawyers, lobbyists, other influence peddlers in Washington feed from the trough of wasteful gov’t spending on “defence”. And hundreds of thousands of people in Washington enjoy very large salaries, for same reason.

Rajaee – - Core purpose of the illegal US invasion of Iraq was to exploit anger of American public to remove an enemy of Israel and install someone friendly to Israel and the US. All the noise about WMD was cover.

I disagree on Israel’s role in the lead up to the Iraq War. In my opinion the Iraq War was primarily an OPEC operation. When the US elected Bush-Cheney we became de facto members of OPEC.

The earlier Iraqi invasion of Kuwait sent shock waves throughout the Gulf. The US drove Iraq out of Kuwait in the Gulf War and subsequently stationed troops in Saudi Arabia. This created internal Saudi political heat and resulted in the 9-11 attacks.

The Saudis were in a jam. They could not continue to quarter US troops and they could not live with the possibility of another Iraq invasion. The US troops were quietly moved out of Saudi Arabia and Iraq was invaded.

What Dick Cheney did was dovetail the interests of the military contractors with those of OPEC and its transnational corporate allies. The Neocons who helped Cheney sell the Iraq War are not just Zionist. They are representatives of the Military-Industrial Complex.

Just one of their assignments is to bring Israel and its US supporters into the fold of perpetual war.